Micky Lay - Obituary

Micky Lay was a bombastic pub storyteller and the inspiration for Rooster,
protagonist of Jez Butterworth’s hit play Jerusalem

Micky Lay with the Tony award for JerusalemPhoto: SWNS/CLARE GREEN

6:36PM GMT 03 Jan 2014

Micky Lay, who has died aged 73, was a big-talking barfly who became the inspiration for Johnny “Rooster” Byron, the anti-hero of Jez Butterworth’s hit play Jerusalem.

When the play opened in 2009 at London’s Royal Court Theatre, it was instantly heralded as a modern classic. Mark Rylance’s barnstorming performance as Rooster, an ageing motorcycle stuntman living in a caravan in the woods on the hem of Pewsey, Wiltshire, won him rave reviews, and several awards.

A tragi-comic force of nature, Rooster struts the boards, chest puffed out, spinning wild tales to a wide-eyed audience of adolescents, all the while facing eviction by less-than-impressed council bailiffs. Fuelled by drink, drugs and a convincing access to the mystical lore of Old England – faeries, giants and all – he is equal parts ribald, disgraceful and touching.

On seeing the play in London, Lay admitted: “I do recognise myself in the character.”

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Mark Rylance as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, the character inspired by Micky Lay, in Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre (ALASTAIR MUIR)

For Lay himself was a bombastic eccentric whose anti-Establishment vernacular was matched by a jester’s eye for the absurd. Butterworth met the retired builder in the 1990s while living in Pewsey, where Lay was considered “a village character”. Jerry Kunkler, the beleaguered landlord of Lay’s local, Moonrakers, barred him from the premises 20 times over three decades.

Butterworth was one of many youngsters who called him “Gramps” and listened to his beery stories, drinking in the patterns of Lay’s speech, extended vowels and machine-gun profanity. The fascination was not reciprocated. “I can barely remember him,” Lay said of Butterworth. Nor was Lay entranced by his belated fame. “You get paid to do this, do you? Come up here and talk to me?” he asked one interviewer. “That’s a laugh, isn’t it.”

Michael Valentine Lay was born in Wiltshire on February 14 1940, reportedly from Romany origins. For a man born on Valentine’s Day, his loves were eclectic. An attraction to nature, and in particular birdwatching, was a constant, as was his fondness for substance abuse: he was to receive a conviction for drug possession. For much of his working life he drove a JCB excavator.

In 2009, with Jerusalem in pre-production, Rylance visited Lay to study his mannerisms. He was initially turned away with an expletive-filled riposte. On his return a bottle of whisky greased the wheels and the pair bonded. “He was very generous with me and invited me into his house and talked with me for hours,” acknowledged Rylance. “He has two sides, Micky Lay. Good manners, courtesy, when he’s sober. And I think when he gets drunk, he gets very, very difficult.”

It was a judgment matched by those living near Lay in Pewsey, some of whom celebrated him as a local hero while others despaired of his antics. Lay himself felt Rylance’s verdict unfair. “He gets to smoke a spliff on stage. I can’t even have a fag in the pub.”

But his reputation came to precede him. As a result of the Lay’s stage alter ego, his fellow drinkers began to expect a high level of consumption (Lay once claimed to have polished off 43 pints of Guinness in a single sitting) and banter. He enjoyed rising to the challenge. “When you go to the pub and it’s boring, I am the sort of person to get it revved up,” he explained. “They expect it of you. If you are quiet one night, people ask what’s the matter.”

Lay died of a heart attack outside Moonrakers as he waited for evening opening. “He liked to have a chat with our barmaids so that’s why he got in early,” said Kunkler. “He was an early doors man.”

Micky Lay married twice but both marriages were dissolved. He is survived two daughters from his first marriage, and a son and daughter from his second.

When Jerusalem’s run on Broadway, a production Lay couldn’t attend due to his drug conviction, won Rylance a Tony, the actor dedicated the award “to the guy in Wiltshire who very much inspired Jez to write the play. I think he’d really like it.” He later passed the trophy on, care of Moonrakers. “If someone wants to give me a Tony Award fair play to them,” was Lay’s laconic response. “I suspect it’s the only Tony in Wiltshire.”